GNOME is poor, is it?

[Johnson David]

On Thursday 08 January 2004 08:54 am, Mazen S. Alzogbi wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I just installed GNOME on my machine and I am comparing it with KDE.
> KDE loads with much more applications and it even has a control
> center for system settings. FYI, I installed GNOME by pkg_add -rv
> gnome2.

I'm a huge KDE fan. But I'm going to switch hats and defend GNOME for a 
while.

KDE and GNOME have different philosophies of the desktop. Neither is 
correct. GNOME prefers to be a simpler desktop with fewer bundled 
applications (like Windows). KDE prefers to be a full featured desktop 
with more bundled applications (like OSX). Everything you can do in KDE 
you can do in GNOME, but you might have to install additional GNOME 
applications that aren't part of the gnome2 meta port.

GNOME prefers a minimalist desktop with fewer user configurable options. 
You aren't able to "tweak" every little detail. KDE is the opposite, 
and prefers a wider feature set with configuration options for 
everything. There has been a minor "holy war" over these differences, 
as GNOME people say KDE is too difficult and that the large number of 
options in the control center scares away newbies, while KDE people say 
GNOME is too simplistic and presumes to know better than the user what 
the user should be doing.

I'm in between. Try them both for an extended period of time (at least a 
week for both), and decide for yourself.

Sidenote: GNOME does have a control center. I can't remember it's name 
off the top of my head, but it's one of the options available under the 
"Start Here" icon.

David